(PopSike) The Millennium - Pieces (SICP-1690) (Japanese Paper Sleeve Edition) - 2007, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

BEGIN by the Millennium was an astounding artistic achievement that went largely unheralded in its own time. The 1968 album was a critical smash, but it did not catch on with the legions of post-Summer of Love rock music fans whose minds were being warped by the more assertive sounds of Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Promotional shots showing grinning band members dressed entirely in white seemed somewhat out of touch to a public living through the tumultuous events of 1968. Like many of the other great pop groups of their era, the Millennium were overwhelmed throughout that turbulent year by real world events.
That they broke up shortly after the release of their triumphant debut album was devastating news for fans of quality pop and rock music. Seldom had a group come along that featured five first-class songwriter/ musicians, all performing at their peak artistic level. Add to this solution a red hot rhythm section, plus a producer capable of crafting any sound conceivable, and the potential of the Millennium becomes apparent. Guitarist and songwriter Joey Stec remembers: "Lyrically, I think we were right on it. It was a very controversial and very well put together statement album of the time, and the technical stuff that Curt did is still unparalleled as far as I'm concerned".

Producer/ arranger Curt Boettcher oversaw most of the band's sessions, while effects whiz producer Keith Olsen sculpted their sound. Curt maintained complete control over both the group's image and their dealings within the industry. As such, he may have inadvertently rubbed some industry bigwigs the wrong way. When sales totals for BEGIN failed to top the 100,000 mark, the group was called to task by Columbia Records A&R chief Jack Gold. (BEGIN had cost the label roughly $120,000.) While fans of the Millennium may deride Gold for his decision to drop the group from Columbia (as well as for his alleged assessment of their final single), it is important to acknowledge that Gold may have been feeling some pressure as well. Explains Stec: "What would you do if you had to answer to Clive Davis and your name was Jack Gold? I'd say 'no more' and that's what Jack Gold did. I wouldn't respect the man if he didn't. I have no problem with his decision to pull the plug."

By 1969, the Millennium, Curt Boettcher (who was also an independently contracted producer for Columbia), BEGIN executive producer Gary Usher and a slew of Usher-produced acts like Gene Clark, the Peanut Butter Conspiracy and Chad & Jeremy were all let go by the label. Combined with the internal conflicts the Millennium were experiencing, and multiplied by the inherent pressures of their rock-n-roll lifestyles, the loss of their Columbia recording contract was a fatal blow for the group. The Millennium disbanded in 1969, leaving behind a classic one-shot "desert island" LP.

Yet the Millennium's breakup did not eliminate outside interest in the group. Somewhere along the line, enough "people in the know" purchased or were handed copies of BEGIN, and soon a small but devoted cult began to form around the record (as well as similar pop albums like Sagittarius's PRESENT TENSE and ALONG COMES THE ASSOCIATION). In 1990 BEGIN was finally re-issued on CD in Japan. However it wasn't until the next millennium that fans would hear anything else from the band. While BEGIN had achieved some recognition due to the reissue, what was largely unknown at the time was that many of the songs from the album-- "5 AM", "I Just Want to Be Your Friend", "The Island", "Some Sunny Day" and "Karmic Dream Sequence no. 1"-- were actually first recorded by Curt Boettcher's previous group the Ballroom and were only later embellished with Millennium overdubs. Columbia acquired the rights to these songs from Boettcher's former partner Steve Clark as part of the buy-out of Curt's Our Productions contract, and the tracks were more or less assigned to the record in lieu of more contemporaneous material. "We had to buy all those masters back from Steve Clark at ten grand, eight grand a whack", confirms Stec. "Yeah, they had to put them on the record. But I don't really believe we had to. That was just because we had no management."

For whatever reason, a good amount of unrealized Millennium material languished in the vaults for years. It is an incredible revelation to finally hear these missing puzzle pieces which reveal a band of enormous depth and songwriting talent. Before one dives into these astounding outtakes, however, it's important to recognize and appreciate the individual talents of the players involved. Although Curt Boettcher's vocals largely dominated BEGIN, he was really only one eighth of the group. What made the Millennium one of the greatest bands of the sixties was the combined genius of eight highly talented individuals: Curt Boettcher was a gifted record producer and vocal arranger, famous for his work with the Association and Tommy Roe. Ron Edgar was a longtime partner of Curt's who was highly regarded for his awesome drum work with the infamous proto-punk band the Music Machine. Michael Fennelly was a gifted young songwriter with a tremendous voice and an innate ability to compose in a wide assortment of musical styles. Lee Mallory, a singer-songwriter of some renown in Hollywood, had seen his great solo 45 "That's the Way It's Gonna Be" hit #2 in Seattle and #1 in Amsterdam in 1966. Keith Olsen, former Music Machine bassist, was the Millennium's guru of sound. Doug Rhodes was a talented keyboardist and bassist who had sessioned heavily around L.A. and who was also an integral component of the Music Machine. Sandy Salisbury, originally from Hawaii, had previously worked with Tommy Roe and also penned songs for the band the New Establishment. Joey Stec was an able young songwriter/ guitarist from Chicago who had ventured westward with members of the band the Poor after having heard their drummer Pat Shanahan play Lee Mallory's "Some Sunny Day" on the guitar.

After listening to these unreleased demos, the divine results of the cosmically profound collaborative effort known as the Millennium become even more apparent. Unlike most of the concurrent L.A. super-groups (e.g. Rhinoceros), the members of the Millennium actually gelled musically. The various band members engaged in a variety of writing partnerships that resulted in some of the most beautiful (if under-appreciated) music of their era. Perhaps the most lucrative pairing resulted between Michael Fennelly and Joey Stec, who together penned three of the group's four Columbia singles (including the unreleased "Just About the Same"). The duo had a knack for killer melodic hooks that could stealthily creep into a listener's subconscious. Many of the other tunes the group recorded were written by Lee Mallory, either solo or in conjunction with other band members. It is exciting to listen to Lee's work from this era-- he really comes into his own here. For fans of the classic L.A. pop sound, his Rev-ola CD release THAT'S THE WAY IT'S GONNA BE is also essential listening. Curt Boettcher is merely himself here; composing, producing, singing and arranging with absolute finesse. Sandy Salisbury remains largely in the background, most of his compositions earmarked for an upcoming solo album. Yet whenever he takes a lead vocal or pierces through a wall of harmonies, you are instantly reminded he is a singer to be reckoned with.

Ladies and gentlemen, the promise on the back sleeve of the first record has finally been fulfilled… The Millennium… To be continued!

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 18. August 2010, 12:24

The Millennium / Pieces (SICP-1690)

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7170A Adapter: 3 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\CODEC's\flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : --best -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 1:04.39 | 0 | 4838
2 | 1:04.39 | 2:55.65 | 4839 | 18028
3 | 4:00.29 | 2:41.43 | 18029 | 30146
4 | 6:41.72 | 2:53.52 | 30147 | 43173
5 | 9:35.49 | 2:09.45 | 43174 | 52893
6 | 11:45.19 | 3:11.53 | 52894 | 67271
7 | 14:56.72 | 2:28.53 | 67272 | 78424
8 | 17:25.50 | 4:10.14 | 78425 | 97188
9 | 21:35.64 | 2:42.64 | 97189 | 109402
10 | 24:18.53 | 2:33.18 | 109403 | 120895
11 | 26:51.71 | 2:19.70 | 120896 | 131390
12 | 29:11.66 | 3:05.20 | 131391 | 145285
13 | 32:17.11 | 3:10.62 | 145286 | 159597
14 | 35:27.73 | 3:44.56 | 159598 | 176453
15 | 39:12.54 | 2:59.21 | 176454 | 189899
16 | 42:12.00 | 1:56.63 | 189900 | 198662
17 | 44:08.63 | 2:47.10 | 198663 | 211197
18 | 46:55.73 | 3:16.25 | 211198 | 225922
19 | 50:12.23 | 2:12.25 | 225923 | 235847
20 | 52:24.48 | 3:17.27 | 235848 | 250649
21 | 55:42.00 | 3:10.33 | 250650 | 264932

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename H:\The Millennium\The Millennium - Pieces (SICP-1690).wav

Peak level 91.2 %
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 8E8AACCF
Copy CRC 8E8AACCF
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report

REM GENRE Psychedelic
REM DATE 2003
REM DISCID 200DCC15
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb5"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
TITLE "Pieces (SICP-1690)"
FILE "The Millennium - Pieces (SICP-1690).flac" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "Prelude"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "To Claudia On Thursday"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 01 01:04:39
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "Baby, It's Real"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 03:58:30
INDEX 01 04:00:29
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "It's You"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 06:39:73
INDEX 01 06:41:72
TRACK 05 AUDIO
TITLE "I Just Don't Know How To Say Goodbye"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 09:33:50
INDEX 01 09:35:49
TRACK 06 AUDIO
TITLE "Good People"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 11:43:20
INDEX 01 11:45:19
TRACK 07 AUDIO
TITLE "Can You See"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 14:54:73
INDEX 01 14:56:72
TRACK 08 AUDIO
TITLE "How Much I Love You"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 17:23:51
INDEX 01 17:25:50
TRACK 09 AUDIO
TITLE "The Blues Is Just A Good Woman Gone Bad"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 21:33:66
INDEX 01 21:35:64
TRACK 10 AUDIO
TITLE "Once Upon A Time"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 24:16:54
INDEX 01 24:18:53
TRACK 11 AUDIO
TITLE "Dying With You"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 26:49:72
INDEX 01 26:51:71
TRACK 12 AUDIO
TITLE "The Word"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 29:09:67
INDEX 01 29:11:66
TRACK 13 AUDIO
TITLE "Share With Me"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 32:15:12
INDEX 01 32:17:11
TRACK 14 AUDIO
TITLE "Sometime Or Another"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 35:25:74
INDEX 01 35:27:73
TRACK 15 AUDIO
TITLE "A Younger Me"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 39:10:56
INDEX 01 39:12:54
TRACK 16 AUDIO
TITLE "I Need To Be By Your Side"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 42:10:01
INDEX 01 42:12:00
TRACK 17 AUDIO
TITLE "Sunshine Girl"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 44:06:64
INDEX 01 44:08:63
TRACK 18 AUDIO
TITLE "Suspended Animation"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 46:53:74
INDEX 01 46:55:73
TRACK 19 AUDIO
TITLE "The Ways I Love You"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 50:10:24
INDEX 01 50:12:23
TRACK 20 AUDIO
TITLE "The Hills Of Vermont"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 52:22:49
INDEX 01 52:24:48
TRACK 21 AUDIO
TITLE "It Won't Always Be The Same"
PERFORMER "The Millennium"
INDEX 00 55:40:01
INDEX 01 55:42:00